A new proposal to ban "persistent pirates" from the internet has been passed by the French senate, bringing it one step closer to becoming law.

The senate voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of the law, which would implement a three-strike rule for people caught downloading copyrighted materials online. First-time offenders would receive an email notifying them of their bad behavior and telling them to stop; a second offense would net a letter in the mail, presumably a stronger warning to knock it off. Users caught illegally sharing files a third time would find themselves without a net connection.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy described the idea in late 2007 as "a decisive moment for the future of a civilized internet," and the Senate apparently shares that conviction, voting 297 to 15 in favor of the measure. If enacted, the law will require internet providers to monitor their users for "casual piracy," which will themselves be monitored by a new government body dedicated to anti-piracy efforts. Companies in France will also be encouraged to install software to block file sharing by employees.

A member of the right-wing Mouvement pour la France party attempted to modify the proposed law before the change to impose fines on pirates, saying that internet access had become an "essential commodity," but the amendment was rejected. How the proposal will fare if it becomes law, which appears virtually inevitable, is difficult to say; the European Union rejected an idea to impose a similar law across the EU in April 2008, saying it would conflict with "civil liberties and human rights."

Never seen a bigger bullshit in a long time. So everybody "sharing" a legal file over file sharing ( as it is done a lot nowadays to distribute patches, demos, trailers without killing a single server ) is put in the same bucket as somebody downloading a cracked game. Way to punish legal users ( why comes "fuck the state" to my mind reading this? )

I dunno. I'm not seeing this is such an overwhelmingly negative light. I mean, even if I'm really not sure if it'd work, the idea isn't all that bad. And it's lenient too - I mean, three strikes before any punishment is hardly harsh. As long as they wouldn't get pegged unfairly, it strikes me as a reasonably good idea, if hard to implement.

Knowing France , I bet there's gonna be a lot of protesting, hacking of the governements and Sarkozi's computer is not impossible. It does not seem to be widely known but we do have a Pirate party , as wacky as it sounds.Then it depends on how thoroughly this law will be applied , if at all.

Bypassing the surveillance will always be possible (as long as human rights are not totally forgotten), in fact thinking about it I may be eager to try my mind against professionnals ; plus it would add a spicy adventurous feeling when I download.

Yeah. France sucks enough as is, I never really saw the attraction to the place as a tourist spot, the people are insufferable, everything costs five times what it's worth, and the locals speak French. Better off vacationing in England, Italy, or Germany, depending on what floats your boats. Now with the Interwebz under fire, the only thing France has going for it is... Well, nothing really.

Yeah. France sucks enough as is, I never really saw the attraction to the place as a tourist spot, the people are insufferable, everything costs five times what it's worth, and the locals speak French. Better off vacationing in England, Italy, or Germany, depending on what floats your boats. Now with the Interwebz under fire, the only thing France has going for it is... Well, nothing really.

Slightly cheaper booze than England would be one plus point, but why not just go to Belgium instead?

Yeah. France sucks enough as is, I never really saw the attraction to the place as a tourist spot, the people are insufferable, everything costs five times what it's worth, and the locals speak French. Better off vacationing in England, Italy, or Germany, depending on what floats your boats. Now with the Interwebz under fire, the only thing France has going for it is... Well, nothing really.

Slightly cheaper booze than England would be one plus point, but why not just go to Belgium instead?

Theyre french... will more than likly enjoy it."Oh ho, the silly americans, they hate us even more now uh. Is good to be hated ja."Actually scratch that. America is getting to that point too just as a excuse to moniter all its citizens.

Naw. They're trying to get the ISPs on board, which means they'll be examining how much bandwidth you use and what ports that bandwidth is flowing through. Too many foolish teenagers use BitTorrent clients with their default, insecure settings enabled. Makes things too easy for the ISPs, you know? Running through a proxy won't do anything because the ISP probably isn't too interested in where the traffic is going, just what the traffic is probably consists of. See?

axia777:Good thing I do not live in France! I do feel sorry for people who like the Pirate Bay in France though. Kind of like gamers in Australia.

Well, after a law is passed, there is still the need for an application decree for said law... we Froggies have still some time before shits sharts hitting the fan...It's just State-made bullying, but the actual legal procedures are expensive, of course we will be in a tight spot, but we can hope it won't be put into pratice.

FACT : this is like the Olivennes bill (named after the previous FNAC CEO), just another way to pander greedy corporations instead of understanding wtf is going on... I think it won't start ruining our fun before next year... hopefully they'll harass 5 or 10 random nizzles living in suburban projects and call it GREAT SUCCESS, because in truth nobody gives a shit, they more or less stopped arresting and fining people who download after the first ones (to set an example), because we have much more dangerous individuals out there...